Defective-yarn detector for knitting-machines.



F. APPLETONA DEFECTIVE YARN DETECTOR FOR KNITTING MACHINES.

APPLICATlON FILED Mn. 10, 1916.

1,251,459. Patented Jan.1,l91&

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

R 26 WE Q 6 8 6 J /2 25 L 7 a 1.; g 4 1,22

' RANK AF'PLQFNI UNITED STATES FRANK APPLETON, OF, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO SCOTT & WILLIAMS, INCORPORATED, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

DEFECTIVE-YARN DETECTOR FOR KNITTING-MACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 10', 1916. Serial No. 83,251.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK Arrnnron, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Defective-Yarn Detectors for Knitting-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a knitting machine with means whereby, when the free forward passage of the yarn to the ne-dles is arrested and said yarn is therefore subjected to tension, it will not break at or near the needles and thus cause the latter to cast off the web, but will be severed at a point remote from the needles in order that the yarn supplied to the latter will not be exhausted before the machine can be stop ed.

Another ihature of my invention consists in so connecting the yarn severing and stopmotion devices that these operations will be performed simultaneously.

In the accompanying drawings- Figure 1 is a view illustrating the relation to each other of the needles, yarn guides and yarn severing devices of the machine;

Fig. 2 is a top view, on an'enlarged scale, of said yarn severing devices and of some of the yarn guides;

Fig. 3 is a front view of the same looking in the direction of the arrow a Fig. 2; v

Fig. 4 is a rear view of part of the same ltpoln'ng in the direction of the arrow b, s-

Fig. 5 is an end view looking in the direction of the arrow 0, Fig. 2, and

Fig. 6 is a view similar to'Fig. 5, but omit-- ting certain yarn guides there shown and illustrating one of the parts in a different position.

When, in an ordinary knitting machine, the free forward feed of the knitting yarn is interfered with for any reason such, for instance, as a defect in the yarn or in the guides therefor, the yarn is subjected to ension and is soon broken. usually occur at a point close to the needles, thereby at once cutting off the further suply of yarn to said needles and causing the atter to cast off the knitted web which is being produced.

My invention consists in providing, at a point relatively remote from the needles, a yarn severing device which is inoperative Such breaks so long as the yarn is being fed freely to the needles, but, when the yarn is subjected to tension, is caused to sever the yarn atsuch remote point, so that the supply of yarn to the needles will continue until the machine can be stopped. In order to insure this result, the stop motion device is actuated at the same time as the yarn severing device.

In the accompanying drawings, 1 represents the needles of the knitting machine and 2 a latch guard carrying the guide whereby .the knitting yarn is fed to said needles. Rising from the fixed frame of the machine is a post 3 having at an elevated point a projecting arm 4 which carries the devices constituting the subject of my invention.

Upon a head at the outer end of the arm 4 is fixedly mounted an arm 5 having depending guide loops 6 for the yarn, and pivotally mounted in said outer end hf the arm 4 is a trigger 7 having upwardly projecting yarn guiding loops 8 alternating with the loops 6, as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

The trigger 7 is carried by a head 9 (Fig. 4) upon one end of a rock shaft 10 which is mounted so 'as to be free to swing in a bearing in the arm 4, and has at its opposite end a cam formation consisting, in the present instance, of a flattened rib 11 projecting outwardly from and extending dia- Patented Jan. 1, 1918.

metrically across the end face of the shaft,

as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Slidabl mounted in hearings on the arm 4 is a ing bolt 12 having a downwardly bent inner end 13, and between the latter and a hook 14 on the arm 4 is interposed a coiled sprin 15, which tends to press said inner end of the bolt 12 constantly against the cam formation 11 onthe end face of the rock shaft 10. Rig'idly mounted on the end of the arm 4:

is a shear blade 16. and pivotally mounted in contact with said blade 16 is a swinging shear blade 17, which,.in the present inwhose other arm 19 constitutes a trip arm for actuating the stop motion device of the machine, said trip arm being connected to said stop motion device by any suitable form of attachment 20,

Any suitable form of stop motion device stance, constitutes one arm of a lever 18 j the same being immaterial to my'present inventlon. For convemencahowever,Ihave shown, in Fig. 1, a stop motion device such as constitutes the subject of a separate appli cation for atent filed by me, Serial ilo. 83,252, of, arch 10, 1916,. but for a proper understandin of my present invention no detailed description of'such stop motion de-' vice will be necessary:

When the parts are in shear blades are separated so that the in front and rear of the shear b ades, as shown. At such time the trip arm 19 of the. lever 18 is depressed, as shown in Fig. 5, and is locked in this position by-engagement of said trip arm with the forward end of the bolt 12, against the normal tendency of the arm 19 to rise under the action of a coiled spring 23 :interposed between the. outer end of said arm 19 andfthe .end ofa guide loop 26, hence i at any time, the free orward passage of the knitting yarn is obstructed and said yarn is subjected to tenv sion, the trigger 7 will be caused to rise:

from the position shown'by full lines in Figs. 1 and 3 to that shown by dotted lines m in said figures, and this will have the effect of turning the rock shaft 10 so astocarry the edge of the cam rib 11 away from the inner end of the bolt 12 and thereby ermit retraction of the latter under the in uence of the spring 15 until it bears against the flat face of the rib. This movement withdraws the end of the bolt 12 from locking engagement with the trip arm 19 of the lever 18 and thereby permits said arm to rise under the action of the spring 23 so as to close the shear blade 17 against the blade 16 and thus sever the yarn and at the same time cause the trip arm 19, through the medium of the connection 20, to operate the stop motion device of the machine and thereby arrest the knitting operation before the length the position shown in Figs. 2, 3, t and 5 of the drawin the itting yarn can pass freely between them, be ing properly directed in its course by means of guide loops 21 and 22 located res ectively control of sai The machine can be readily restored to operative condition again b joining the ends of the knitting fyarn an resetting the sto -motion device a ter first correcting the de ectwhich original-1y caused the free forward feed of the yarn to be interfered with. f

The stoppage of the machine will also be efiected in the event of the breaking of the yarn between the bobbinand the needles,

the trigger 7 in such case falling to. the pocausing an operation of the parts similar to that which was eflected by the elevation of shown by dotted said trigger to the. position lines 0 in Fig. I claim:

- 1. The combination of the needles of a knitting machine, arn guides including a trig er engaging t e yarn at a point relative y remote from the needles, a rock shaft carrying said trigger and'having a duplex cam formation thereon, a sto motion operating lever, and a bolt for loc 'ng said lever in inoperative (position, said bolt being under cam formation whereby the 'sition shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3 and v stop mechanism will be operated b move-' I ment of the trigger in either direction.

2. The combination of the needlesof a knitting machine, yarn guides including a' trigger engaging the yarn at a point relatively remote from the needles, a' rock shaft carrying said trigger and havin on one end face of the same a fiat sided ri pressing against an endof said rib, and means for moving said locking bolt so as to cause it to press against a fiat side of the projecting 'from said face and extending diametrically across the same, a locking bolt normally rib when the latter is turned from its normal position.

-In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. 

